Doctor Used DIY Cordless Drill in Brain Surgery in Ukraine

Posted by Alex in Medicine on March 17, 2008 at 3:20 pm


Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon, visited a state hospital in Ukraine 15 years ago to give a series of lecture. What he saw was so appalling that he began volunteering his time to do surgery and teach the doctors there.

Here’s what happened in a typical Ukrainian brain surgery:

Henry Marsh, a senior consultant at St George’s hospital in Tooting, south London, has used the Bosch 9.6 volt battery-operated hand tool to open up the skulls of his patients to remove life-threatening tumours. Occasionally the battery has gone flat halfway through.

The operation is performed with the patients fully awake – a technique that fell out of use in Britain 50 years ago. Marsh said that Ukrainians could withstand such a practice because they were “very tough”.

The 58-year-old consultant travels to Ukraine twice a year to perform free operations at a clinic run by a fellow surgeon, Igor Petrovich. The handyman drill was used because the local doctors could not afford state-of-the-art equipment.

Link | Main Article – via Arbroath


Previous post
this post? Please Email this               
Next post


FUN PRODUCTS FROM THE NEATORAMA SHOP:


COMMENT

6 comments to "Doctor Used DIY Cordless Drill in Brain Surgery in Ukraine"

  1. roger
    March 17th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Happy to see I'm not the only one doing this. Also, Dremel tools are great for amateur dentistry.

  2. Diogo Bahiense
    March 17th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    It`s common in Brazil too, nowadays.

    link: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL155481-5606,00-DENUNCIA+DE+FURA DEIRAS+EM+CIRURGIAS+E+SENSACIONALISTA+DIZ+SBN.html

    Translation:

    Denunciation of drills in surgeries is ' sensationalist ', says SBN

    Councilman received denunciations of that drills are tidy with alcohol. State secretariat of Health says that drill alone is used to initiate surgery.

    By G1, Rio de Janeiro, with information of TV Globo, Spreading Councilman received photos from doctors operating with electric drills. Diante of the denunciations of that of the state of Rio de Janeiro public hospitals use joinery drills to operate the head of patients, the president of the Brazilian Society of Neurosurgery (SBN), Jose Carlos Saleme, criticized "the sensationalist" spreading as. "I find that it is not for there that the question is decided. It needs a more serious inquiry. It never goes to be with this type of sensationalism, because to alarm the population does not help anything", said the neurosurgeon. For the president of the Brazilian Society of Neurosurgery, "doctors of the entire world" still use drills. "the important one is the sterilization of them. It is necessary that the drill pointer have to be sterilized. Some of these drills are manufactured for medical uses, and allow them to be sterilized with formoline or oxietilene", said Jose Saleme. He still said that the biggest problem of the state of Rio de Janeiro hospitals is the lack of doctors. The president of the Commission of Health of the City council of Rio De Janeiro, councilman Carlos Eduardo (PSB), said that he received the denunciations from doctors annoyed of using unproper equipment. Carlos Eduardo (PSB) said that he received denunciations of that they are being using reused drills and the pointers are being sterilizated only with alcohol before the surgery.

    Spreading Councilman and president of Brazilian Society of Neurosurgery disagree with the use of drills in operation "Clean with alcohol and submits the patient to this crime. Drills were used this way 50 years ago. Unfortunately these patients run hemorrhage risk, serious infection, sequels. It is one more chapter of management lack (of the city departments and Health institutes)", said the president of the Commission of Health of the City council in interview to radio CBN. The president of the health commission also informed that he goes to ask for the opening of a public civil inquiry in the State Public prosecution service. He said that he demands new equipments for emergencies, human resources and the surgical centers with use of adequate material. The state hospitals Adam Nunes Pereira (Duque de Caxias City, interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro), Azevedo Lima (Sao Gonçalo, Region Metropolitan of Rio), Rocha Faria(Campo Grande, West Zone of Rio), Getulio Vargas (Penha, North Zone of Rio) and municipal Hospital Souza Aguiar (Downtown) is some of the ones that more operate with electric drills, according to denunciations of the councilman.

  3. Christophe
    March 17th, 2008 at 9:00 pm

    Awww, using a crappy Bosch when you could use Milwaukee V28 power!

  4. Rohin
    March 17th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

    Hey hey, Henry Marsh works at my hospital! Wow, connected to someone on Neatorama. Made it.

  5. Lasse
    March 18th, 2008 at 6:59 am

    In Soviet Russia you do the operations on the surgent.

  6. Grace
    June 24th, 2008 at 2:05 am

    Hi,

    Can anybody explain the following

    1)Is neuro mentor disease hereditary >? Is any brain related disease hereditary?

    Can you please explain it.

    Regards,
    Grace


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Stay updated on the comments with Comment RSS